OUR FACE FROM FISH TO MAN 



early human fossils are unquestionably human in 

 one way or another — even including the famous 

 Pithecanthropus^ which zealous anti-evolutionists 

 stoutly refuse to admit to the human family. But 

 it is also noteworthy that each of these earliest 

 human relics is ape-like in a different way. The 

 Piltdown lower jaw (Fig. 41) and teeth are extra- 

 ordinarily ape-like; the Pithecanthropus skull (Fig. 

 42C) is ape-like both in its projecting brow ridges 

 and in certain features of the occiput, while the 

 braincast, according to all expert analysis, is far 

 inferior in certain respects to that of Homo sapiens; 

 the Heidelberg jaw (Fig. 45D) has a receding chin 

 and the Mousterian skull has many primitive ape- 

 like details in the teeth (Fig. 45F) that are usually 

 lost in Homo sapiens. The Rhodesian skull (Fig. 

 42F) shows remarkably gorilla-like details of the 

 bony lower border of the nose, indicating a very 

 low form of nasal cartilages and nostrils ; the Talgai 

 (Australia) skull is a proto-Australoid type with 

 extreme prognathism (Fig. 42E). The Australopi- 

 thecus skull (Fig. 42A) is that of a young anthro- 

 poid with an exceptionally well developed brain 

 (Dart, Sollas, Broom). While it may be nearer 



to the chimpanzee than to man, its brain, skull 



72 



